Fighting over the Mentawai lslands: Mark II

Revisiting the unfolding drama of surfpolitiking in the Mentawai Islands: I am following the complex machinations of this surf tourism web in the Mentawai Islands, and its broader make-up and ramifications in terms of surf tourism. It is like trying to unravel a wet mariner’s knot with one hand. Nevertheless, here are some notes from a reading I am doing about research on surf tourism.

Ponting, J., McDonald, M., and Wearing, S. (2005) ‘Deconstructing Wonderland: Surfing Tourism in the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia’, in Society and Leisure, Volume 28, Number 1, pp. 141-162.

• There is a ‘tendency to encourage concentrated external control of revenue and resources while the true cost of such ventures are shouldered by the wider community’ (142).
• ‘The equation of power and knowledge in the Mentawai is heavily weighted towards Western tourism operators and their business culture as opposed to local community values … Few operators engage in informed interpretation of the indigenous Mentawai people‘ (151).

These quotes suggests to me that any Western-controlled or contained management committee is not the way to go. To ensure suitable control of revenue and resources any such management committee must undergo a regular democratic process of election to the board, with local resident and indigenous community votes given the same weighting as any representative of interested tourism industry and government parties. In this way any development would have to be not only negotiated but re-negotiated. This means, in simple terms, nothing can be taken for granted. This democratic process would effect tourism ‘efficiency’ and slow down tourism ‘development’, but that is a limited model of doing business anyway.

• “Wonderland has been made to function by neo-liberalist ideals that attempt to subordinate the interests of destination communities in developing countries, focussing instead upon the marketplace of developed countries” (142).

Given the amount of opinion and politiking going on in the marketplace of developed countries in regards to the Mentawai Islands it seems as if this quote rings very true. In fact, by and large, there has been little heard from the local community politics in the Mentawaii in regards to the control of their resources and the politics of the region.

• There are various types of tourism places: “a continuum between ‘heterogenous’ tourist spaces in which tourism represents but one of many understandings of place, and ‘enclavic’ tourist space, tightly controlled by the tourism industry seeking to control and contextualise difference’ (143).

The Mentawai appear to be symptomatic of an enclave tourist space as Western tourism operators attempt to  take a morally superior position of ‘protecting locals’; ‘making sure the Mentawai do not get over-run or environmentally ruined’; etc. It is a paternalistic coloniser logic that would treat the locals as incapable of looking after their own communities/environment and making decisions for themselves about development of the tourism industry (without outsider influence or guidance). Too often indigenous communities are treated as ‘lost tribes’: read as ‘primitive’ and inept and in need of someone to look after and protect them.

• The mobility of the surf travelers through this region means that the travel and communities of the place  becomes a commodified view. Surf journalist Steve Barilotti says it best when he writes: ‘Mentawai boat trips have become the equivalent of 19th century Gentlemen Adventurers shooting buffalo from rail cars as they speed across the vanishing frontier’ (142).  This approach can ‘undermine one’s sense of living in specific and uniqe locales and [so] increase the the feeling of belonging’ (145).

Signifiant contact with people, faces, names etc. is the cornerstone of  feeling a subsequent ethical attachment and responsibility.

• ‘NGO’s concerned with conservation, development and health have been working in the Mentawai region for several decades, including WWF INternational, UNESCO, Citra Mandiri Foundation’, the Siberut National Park Authority, and national health care NGO Bhinekka Tunggal Ika Foundation.

Surfing Aid organisations and tourism orgainsing bodies are only the new kids on the block.

• ‘The surfing media has, to a large extent created the symbols sought out by contemporary surfing tourists. Surf tourism has ebcome a commercially motivated and controlled leisure experience with the surf media creating a voyeuristic keyhole into a mythical Wonderland’ (149).

Pages 147-149 explains the role of the surf media in perpetuating the ‘lost tribes’ imagery; politically apathetic surf travel through the region; and a nostalgia for a ‘pristine’ surfing environment for surf tourists which is easy to get to (pristine = a sanitised view, direct flight, prompt and comfortable accommodation, and luxury resorts and yachts). Marketing through the surfing media is argued to be about enabling tourist surfers to see highly organised and de-contextualised ‘cultural events’ [for example a group of locals who come to dance for them], without having to actually go into the relevent communities unless ’supervised’ by a tourism operator. Otherwise, another side of the Mentawai – poverty and health issues, and colonisation – might ruin the surf marketing dream. Itis an important myth and dream because it provides advertising revenue that campaigns such as ‘the crossing’, and ‘the search’ [surf industry and media complex] need to sell stuff.

• The three main issues facing current Western tourism management practices in the Mentawai Islands are: “Economically neo-liberal approach to development; lack of formal long-term coordinated planning recognising limitis to growth, lack of participatory research, planning and management’ (150).

In other words, what we have is still an unregulated free market approach to developing surf tourism in less developed regions. This means that by and large high levels of financial gain leak back from the ‘destination region back to the foreign financiers’ (150).

• ‘Most operators are essentially seeking the same outcome – a regulated, profitable, surfing tourism industry based on high value industrialised tours which are environmentally, socially and economically sustainable’ (152).

The problem is, with all the politiking this outcome is far from being achieved, and will not be until people come together in a reasonable manner to establish with the local communities what the roadplan to achieve this outcome is. And in the meantime, it is the local communities who suffer. So it is a matter of the highest urgency.

• ‘The first step in the process of applying ecotourism principles is to undertake participatory research and planning … [and] … informed cross cultural understanding’ … involving ‘local indigenous communities in planning and managing tourism have been largely unsuccesful due to what Glenn Reeves (whose doctorate in anthropology provides an ethnographic study of Southern Siberut) has described as a chasm across which the conversation and the negotiation of indentity tale place‘ (153-154).

Establishing  informed cross-cultural understanding is fundamental. It is the most significant barrier to effective co-operation a the Mentawai Islands becoming a true dream surfing locale.

Now go read an article by Tim Baker about loving the Mentawai to Death and visit Surf Aid International. They are much better than my meanderings here.

Also, in contrast to the Mentawai Islands:

Papua New Guinea surf tourism is trying deliver a sustainable surf tourism industry. To maintain a watch on developments a government sanctioned surfing association called Surfing Association of Papua New Guinea has developed a wave management plan. Like minded operators need a license to operate in certain designated area’s under a strict criteria and operational guidelines. Their goals:

		To establish and maintain a code of ethics that earns the respect of the surfing
		community in Papua New Guinea and Overseas.
		To further through surf-tourism the social and economic development at the grass
		roots level through the affiliated surf clubs of the Surfing Association of Papua New
		Guinea.
		To promote conservation and improvement of coastal environments and the
		protection of surfing resources in Papua New Guinea so that the sport of surfing
		can be enjoyed by present and future generations.
		To promote respect for the diverse cultures, traditions and languages of
		Papua New Guinea in all surfers whether members of the Surfing Association of
		Papua New Guinea Inc or guests in Papua New Guinea.
		To promote surf-tourism in Papua New Guinea in an atmosphere of free
		competition so that the benefits flowing from the promotion of surfing maybe
		enjoyed by the local population in the vicinity of surfing venues and by the
		community at large.
		To support and influence surf-tourism in Papua New Guinea in association with
		the Surfing Association of Papua New Guinea and relevant organisations in
		Papua New Guinea and Overseas.
		To promote the expansion of surf-tourism infrustructure in a manner that is
		environmentally and culturally sensitive.
		To support and influence the develoment of surf-tourism products where the
		potential exists.
		To encourage participation of Papua New Guinea nationals at all levels of the
		surf-tourism industry.
		To influence and co-operate with Government, non-Government, domestic and
		international organisations to promote the aims and objectives of the surf-tourism
		industry